Anyone that has followed me for long knows I am obsessed with two architecture styles, Dutch Renaissance and Colonial, and Tudors! Set back way off the street in Hopedale, Mass., sits this rambling Tudor Revival country estate. Built in 1926 for Eben Sumner Draper Jr. (1893-1959), the son of Massachusetts Governor and Draper Corporation owner Eben Sumner Draper, the home provided a secluded escape for the rich millionaire. The home was designed by Boston architects Bigelow & Wadsworth, and replaced his father’s Shingle style country mansion “The Ledges”. The new Draper mansion was highlighted in numerous architectural magazines shortly after it’s construction, which highlighted the amazing brickwork, layout, and interior finishes, all of which remain to today! This spectacular home is over 14,000 square feet and has 17 bedrooms, several located in the staff wing, 10 full baths and 4 half baths, an in-ground swimming pool, gazebo, tennis court, and landscape design attributed to the notable landscape architect Warren Manning. In the 1960s, the home sold out of the family and was used as a home for adults living with developmental disabilities, mental illnesses, physical disabilities, the facility has since sold the Draper mansion and occupies the former carriage house.
Buildings of New England 
There is a very obscure path (a local access road, maybe?) that is chained off between these Draper and/or Draper -associates homes/estates) that is a cut thru to Route 16. Are you aware of that overgrown , paved path? It’s private property, I assume? I like to think it was initially dirt or cobblestones path to a carriage house or footmen on horses. However, I have nothing but my imagination to bolster this claim. These photos you take are mesmerizing, we never could see through or as far as the pristinely kept grounds to view and admire the architecture. Why did Draper keep such a succinct and orderly town plan, and yet seclude himself and these other estates on frontal acreage that is impressive by today’s standards?
LikeLike
The path doesnt ring a bell for me, but I am sure it was for vehicles and/or carriages. The town “center” of Hopedale followed the rigid grid which was common for industrial cities and villages at the time. Lines of similar workers cottages.
LikeLike
As for the path, it was put in there by Eben Draper, Jr. when Memorial School was built in the 1950s, so that kids who lived on or near Mendon Street (Route 16) could cut through there as a shortcut to school. When my kids were going to Memorial in the 1970s, they told me that the principal wouldn’t allow kids to use it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow thanks for that! It makes sense now!
LikeLike